The Caribbean Report: Mick Foley’s #wrestlingforPuertoRico, Debuts in The Crash and More

Several Puerto Rican wrestlers to debut for the Crash

In what’s been a huge surprise for everybody in Puerto Rico, The Crash Lucha Libre announced that for their show on November 29 in San Luis Potosí, Boricua standouts Mike Mendoza, Angel Fashion and Vanilla Vargas are going to debut for Mexico’s 3rd premier promotion The Crash Lucha Libre. Mendoza & Fashion will team with 2-times WWC Universal Champion and The Crash regular Mecha Wolf 450 against Jack Evans, Willie Mack and Mascarita Dorada. Vanilla will be involved in mix tag team action.

Photo: WWL

For Mendoza, is just another step in a ladder of successes that he has had in 2017. After the WWE tryout, almost everybody thought that for the rest of 2017 that was going to be his best achievement, but with The Crash announcement, it seems that his journey keeps getting bigger. As for Fashion, this is the biggest test – for now – of his wrestling career. The man that started as a referee and rose to be a stable in World Wrestling Council’s mid-card, seems to be expanding more with the passing of months since Hurricane Maria. He travelled to Florida and now is wrestling and training for WWE Hall of Famer and wrestling legend “Wild Samoan” Afa’s World Xtreme Wrestling.

Photo: Contralona

Finally, for Vanilla Vargas, she is the better prospect of the three, young and well-travelled, her formal training was actually in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) in Mexico. She already performed in Arena Mexico and wrestle in several Indies in the United States. It seems that The Crash its best suited for her, as she is more accustomed to the Mexican-style of wrestling.

Mick Foley and Rocky Romero to the rescue for Puerto Rico

Photo: Mick Foley Twitter

40 days after the most destructive Hurricane in Puerto Rico’s history, the island is still – in its majority – without electrical power, bad telecommunications and clean water. Even with the external help, Puerto Rico is sitting with only 37% of the island being energize, long lines for first-need goods is the normal and natives are fleeing by the thousands each week.

Photo: Mick Foley Twitter

Mick Foley came in with a great movement to help Puerto Rico. The hashtag #wrestlingforPuertoRico was an auction that was able to raise $21,000 for those damaged by Hurricane Maria in the island. In the auction, WWE talents and legends donated articles – usually signed by them. The Rock, Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Puerto Rican born Lince Dorado and many others helped the WWE Hall of Famer to raise the $21,000 in this disastrous times.

Another wrestler that helped the island in this tough times was former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight and Jr. Tag Team ChampionRocky Romero. Romero is part Cuban, but has family in Puerto Rico, specifically in Bayamon – an urban area, just 20 minutes from San Juan. He did an auction of his complete ring attire from New Japan Pro Wrestling’s G1 Special in Long Beach. That’s the same attire that Romero had when he and Trent Berretta challenged for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team titles for one last time against The Young Bucks in California.

Puerto Rico represents in CKCW’s One Year Anniversary

Photo: CKCW

Cleveland Knights Championship Wrestling is a wrestling promotion that prides itself on booking a lot of Puerto Rican talents. The company is having their One Year Anniversary in Cleveland, Ohio and they’re going all in on their mix of Puerto Rican talents and Indy wrestlers.

The big match that has everyone’s attention, is a fatal 4-way for the Championship Wrestling Association’s Heavyweight title. Starr Roger – probably Puerto Rico’s wrestler of the year – will have to defend his title against former X-Division ChampionDJZ, former TNA World Tag Team Champion Robbie E and former Puerto Rican Champion – who is sign with CWA’s rival promotion World Wrestling League – Mike Mendoza. Roger’s 300 plus-days as CWA Champion will be put to the test against this top 3 indy names.

Florida Wrestling Revolution turns up the heat

As we reported in the latest edition of the Caribbean Report, a new wrestling promotion mainly run by talents from the Caribbean was going to start operating in Kissimmee, Florida. The FWR promotion owned by Ernesto Cruz – a new promoter from Florida – has announced some matches for their February show.

Other news from the Caribbean

– Mick Foley and Rocky Romero weren’t the only ones having special events to help Puerto Rico. The youngest WWC Universal Champion ever BJ did a recollection of goods for those devastated by Hurricane Maria in Humacao – in the east side of Puerto Rico. He was joined by Puerto Rican Prospect Mark Davidson and several talents from Championship Wrestling School.

– Campeonato Nacional de Chilehad a private meeting with WWE scout and legend William Regal. Because of WWE being on tour in South America, CNL held a private show so that Regal could see some Chilean talents from their promotion. If you haven’t watch a show of CNL you’re missing out on a rising wrestling boom that’s incredible, with great energy and native talent coming on their own.

Emmanuel Figueroa Rosado is a young writer out of Puerto Rico. He's been writing about Pro Wrestling for about a year now, with mostly focusing in Puerto Rican Wrestling. He also writes for a Digital Magazine called “Impacto Estelar” and, just recently, started his own weekly Spanish newsletter, El Impacto Semanal (The Weekly Impact). He is a 24-year-old from San Juan, Puerto Rico.